No spoilers ahead. No worries. Local blog The Fresno Beehive ran a contest last week to win one of 70 pairs of tickets to an early screening of the new Harry Potter film and whaddaya know…I won. Always cool when that happens with a movie you’d spend money to see anyway. Saw it Monday night [...]
I have lots of SuperFogeys fan art. Now there is a place for it. At least once a week I’ll be posting new pieces from my archive. Want to see your work on superfogeys.com? Send in your fan art to me at bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com. New fan art goes to the top of [...]
Swifty has turned up in the most unusual of places–a card game! On sale now in the Th3rd World Store is “Please, Don’t Wake Dagon!” a card game based on the characters from the Shadowgirls webcomic. Swifty, along with Bill from Legend of Bill, are playable characters in the game! I haven’t played the game myself yet, but I [...]
My wife surprised me with a ticket to Captain America Saturday night (she’s so cool) and I have to say I had a TON of fun with it. Lots of great winks and nods and a great, truly American story at the heart of it. Loved the Red Skull, the incorporation of ideas from [...]
Just got back from an early screening of Cowboys and Aliens about a half hour ago. The recollections are fresh! You know the story. Man with no name comes to town. He stirs up trouble. Aliens attack. Been done, right? Actually, no. What’s amazing to me is that no one ever really thought to do this [...]
As @TNickPerkins told me today on Twitter, “DUDE. Stuff happens to you don’t it?” It would seem. My wife calls me. Middle of the afternoon and I’m at work. “A man in a van just drove into our house and then smashed into our car.” No, no one got hurt. Not even the driver. Thank goodness. [...]
For many of you, the first time you saw the artwork of Chris Watkins, it was right here on this site in the SuperFogeys Origins story “Spy Gal & Friends in Operation: C.O.W.” earlier this year. Well, Chris also does his own webcomic, Odori Park, and the first collection of Odori Park is available for preorder right now! Guess who [...]
We’re about one month out from the 5th anniversary of the creation of the SuperFogeys. Crazy, right? It was impressed upon me the need to celebrate this fact. I say: let’s do it. Here’s what I’m thinking: ARTISTS I’m looking for artists to help chart the course the SuperFogeys have taken in the past 5 [...]
As you all know, we’re just a few weeks away from the big SuperFogeys 5th Anniversary celebration. Many of you are working hard on your artistic recaps of the chapters. Others are crafting short essays to look back on five years of SF. Those who do are eligible for a prize package which includes: 1. [...]
Hey, everybody. Big changes today, huh? You have no idea. This has been in the works for a long, long time. Let’s not talk about how long. Instead, let’s enjoy the new. I’d encourage everyone to have a poke around. You’ll find some neat surprises as you do and you’ll find that things are a [...]
Before there was The SuperFogeys, there was the blog “From Behind the Light.” It was mostly personal stories from my own life with a sprinkling of other nonsense like short fiction stories and a some early comics. Now that we’re on this new site, I can do more blogging of that type and bring back [...]
Brock Heasley, the creative genius behind the immensely popular SuperFogeys webcomic (first appearing in 2006), agreed to sit down and do a web-based “fan-terview” with me. In late spring of 2011, I came across SuperFogeys on a friend’s site. I had heard of the series back in the height of Myspace.com and had read a [...]
Big thanks to my brother Tyler Heasley for this latest fan art! It made me laugh and brought me right back to the 6th Grade and playing The Legend of Zelda for hours on end. I’d love to see more Fogeys in this style!
Yesterday, for the very first time in my life, I stared at the title “Star Wars” long enough to break it away from all childhood and cognitive associations to see it for what it really is: Utterly ridiculous. I broke it down for you in the title of this post. It’s a war–in the stars! [...]
Before there was The SuperFogeys, there was the blog “From Behind the Light.” This is from 2005: I think the powers of darkness tried to kill me last night. How do I know this? First of all, it was nighttime. Everyone knows that Satan would not kill you during the day. It just wouldn’t be [...]
Webcomics are not made for serial storytelling. A lot of people are going to disagree with me on this point, but it’s my contention that if you don’t acknowledge that basic reality, you will not be able to successfully make a serial webcomic. Fact is, readers of webcomics don’t read every day (or every day [...]
The first thing you have to do with any new concept is generate story ideas. I had my basic idea: superheroes in a nursing home. I even had some of the characters worked out. But what to do with them? In the fall of 2006, I spent a few minutes jotting down whatever came to [...]
So, it’s 2006 and I’ve got story ideas, but they’re not better than gag-a-day stuff because they’re not connected to each other or to any big idea. I didn’t have anything to say, just gags. And that’s the key to serialization (for me): something to say. An idea like superheroes in a nursing home is [...]
One of the things I didn’t learn to do until Chapter 4 of the SuperFogeys was to break each Chapter down by strip. Before Chapter 4, I would write and draw a strip at a time, keeping in mind where I wanted to end up with the chapter and trying to make each strip as [...]
Once I’m confident that each strip will make a proper contribution to the larger whole of a chapter (and each chapter makes a proper contribution to the larger whole of the story), I can set the macro aside and focus on the micro: making the strip WORK. And what do I mean by WORK? I [...]
AND EVEN WHEN IT’S OVER, IT’S NOT OVER… The last thing I wanna mention is how difficult webcomics can make seeing your story as whole—even with tons of planning. I want to stress again how many times I’ve read back over a chapter I thought was pretty solid and realized it just didn’t flow right. [...]
Hey, kids! It’s your friendly neighborhood SuperFogeys artist here with a look at how the art for this massive robot reveal developed. It all started shortly after I agreed to take on the Fogeys as regular artist. Brock told me that Jerry’s plans called for a giant robot to attack Las Vegas and it was [...]
When I was a kid, imagining I had superpowers, the power I dreamt about most often (aside from the proportional strength and agility of a spider) was super speed. For whatever reason, I was absorbed by the idea of being fast. (Ironically, I think my parents had the same preoccupation; I recall many evening hours [...]
Continuing our celebration of the 5th SuperFogeys Anniversary, here’s a poem my brother Tyler wrote up. Enjoy! You’re Just the Gal for Me My black may seem a little stale compared to blue and yellow Yet while a human spectacle, he’s not the proper fellow I love your shiny black and red, The way the [...]
Today’s fan art in celebration of the 5th Anniversary comes to us from Margaret Racine! Thanks, Margaret. It’s a gorgeous take on a truly evil guy!
Congratulations on 5 Amazing Years! I couldn’t be happier to hae such a great webcomic to read and am immensely flattered to be a part of this celebration. The tale of Dr. Rocket’s adoption of Ms. Missile nee L’il Miss Missile nee Nadualia by Benjamin Kissell “So, Dr. Rocket, you never did tell me [...]
File this under: just for fun. When I was younger, I was notoriously sensitive about my first name. I hated it. There were so many ways to make fun of it. The least of the insults was “Broccoli.” When high school came along, the name-calling got more creative. One of my good friends, Pete, started [...]
How awesome is this set of Jerry fan arts by Will Boyer? If you’d like to see some of Will’s line and comic work, be sure and check out his webcomic The Misadventures of SuperMilo!
This one is from my fantastic Sister-in-Law, Karen Heasley. Thanks, Karen! Jerry’s Dream Upon entering the scene, We see our hero’s been bold. Though it’s taken many years, And he’s grown kind of old. “Oh Jerry, sweet Jerry,” The Gal says with a smile. “I’ve longed to hear you say that For quite [...]
Hey, did you know I like to write more than I like to draw? It’s true! Okay, so that’s a bit of an understatement. The first shot in my internal battle over whether or not I should continue drawing SuperFogeys was fired waaaaay back in December 2008 when I decided to post only one strip [...]
Digging into my fan art archives a bit, I found this great piece from Barb Jacobs of Xylia! Sweet, right?
How much do I love drawing? It ranks somewhere in between my daughters and plans coming together in my list of things I love. Yes, that’s a LOT. I may not always end up with a product I’m proud of, but the process of drawing never stops being fun for me. Every drawing is a [...]
Well, today is the end of the big 5th Anniversary Celebration. I want to thank everyone who participated by lending their talents and showing their fandom with a chapter recap, a piece of fan art, or a short essay. I was blown away by the love and detail you all put into your efforts. With [...]
Some weeks back, I wrote about how excited I was for the Star Wars Blu-rays. Even with all the new changes, I didn’t care. I was anxious to watch them with my kids and see new details like how Mark Hamill’s face went so wrong between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back (calm down, [...]
Last time, I explained how and why I decided to watch the new Star Wars Blu-rays with my 9-year-old daughter in a funky order: IV, V, I, II, III, VI. At the end of that blog, Elora and I had gotten halfway through the saga, having just finished Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. She dug [...]
Somebody call Bill Wilingham. ONCE UPON A TIME is a show that bares some obvious similarities to the comic book series FABLES. That (very adult) title is about the (not protected by copyright) fantasy characters from fables and fairy tales cast out of their homelands and living with us in the modern day. OUAT has [...]
Sleep is precious to me. I’m an insomniac so when my eyes are shut and the world fades away, that’s a sacred time. I’m of a generally pleasant disposition, but if you wake me before it’s time to get up, I will rip your head off and stuff it down a toilet. Then I’ll go [...]
I don’t often dress up for Halloween anymore. I’m the dad who’s trailing his little kids and making sure they’re staying safe. One year, I went as a full blown stormtrooper. I worked for six weeks with a friend putting the costume together and custom fitting it to my body. It looked amazing and was [...]
I love this super fun pice by longtime SuperFan Dawn Griffin! Dawn does her own, extremely popular webcomic, Zorphbert and Fred, about two aliens disguised as dogs making observations about us wacky humans. Do yourself a favor and check it out immediately if you haven’t already!
I buy a lot of new music. Well, as much as my budget will allow. I buy music for the feeling it creates within me and the thoughts it inspires. You should know I have no musical talent. When I say I play music, I literally mean I’m hitting “play.” You should not take this [...]
I asked Gwen to compile some of the great comments she’s been posting this week into this little essay for your enjoyment. However, this should be not be seen as an endorsement of her ideas. I’m also not saying she’s wrong. I believe such things are always up the reader. This is just one view. [...]
Hey all, I’ve got some exciting news today! The SuperFogeys was recently invited to join The Collective of Heroes, a webcomic collective that spotlights some of the greatest superhero webomics out there like Union of Heroes and Dynagirl! Check out the site and the announcement about SuperFogeys joining here! IN OTHER NEWS: My friend Ed [...]
With the new SuperFogeys site came this blog you’re reading right now. (Doesn’t it look so much prettier now? Yes, I’ve heard your cries. The blog and comments have been difficult to read and hopefully all the cosmetic changes we’ve made in the past 24 hours clear up most of the issues. I can’t please [...]
There’s a gas station on my way home from work where, 90% of the time I go there, someone asks me for money. Yesterday, it happened again. This time, I was the only one at the pumps The old black man in a wheelchair and army jacket was far away, up against the outer wall [...]
ITEM! The Washington Post is looking for nominations for the best webcomics of 2011. The usual suspects are called out in the article–PVP, Hark! A Vagrant, Penny Arcade, xkcd, etc.–but maybe there’s room for an underdog? I dunno. If you think SuperFogeys is good enough to rank or you have another webcomic in mind as [...]
Didn’t think you guys would want to miss this one. Rob Barba over at Claude + Monet interviewed me for his first “Sci-Fi Saturdays,” in which he interviews a member of the creative community working in Sci-Fi. (I guess that means I do Sci-Fi! Who knew?) Rob asked some of the usual suspects like where [...]
Today marks the 15th Anniversary of my father’s death. This is insane because I was 19-years-old when he died. (I’ll wait while you do the math.) I’m fast approaching a time when it will be longer since he’s been gone than the time I had with him. And yet, in a lot of ways, it [...]
My oldest daughter, Elora, occasionally suffers from abdominal migraines. For the longest time, we didn’t know what they were. She’d break out into spontaneous sweats at the oddest moments–usually when she was at her most calm and reading in bed. Many tests and doctors later, it turned out her stomach was just having a headache. [...]
It’s that time of year again when SuperFogeys takes a bit of time off and you get to step in to fill the gap! Now, we just had the 5th Anniversary Celebration. You all were fiercely participatory during that time and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the chapter recaps. Because of that, I [...]
I’m a cat person. Dogs are needy and slobbery and they all think we’re in a romantic relationship. (How else to explain my dog’s frequent attempts to insert his tongue into my mouth?) Still, when I see a dog in trouble, I can’t resist trying to help him out. This morning it was my wife [...]
Because I’m never one to shy away from calling myself to task (it’s healthy!) and writing a Top 10 BEST SuperFogeys moments would be incredibly self-serving, here are my picks for the Top 10 WORST SuperFogeys Moments (excluding SuperFogeys Origins–that’s a whole different list). We’re talking bad strips, embarrassing creative choices, mistakes, bad art, etc. [...]
This is something I’ve been wanting to write for a long, long time. I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been offered and accepted representation for my book RAISED BY A DEAD MAN (working title) from Bonnie Solow of Solow Literary Enterprises! Querying agents is a rough business. A query is a short letter telling the [...]
Now that I’ve secured an agent and am putting together a proposal for publishers (you can read all about that in this post), I’ve had a chance to reflect a bit on what I’ve accomplished thus far. Quite a bit, as it turns out. When I started the book, I had no idea how or [...]
What follows is my list of favorite songs of 2011. I consume a lot of music, but I don’t hear everything. I don’t even hear everything the year it comes out. So keep that in mind as you read this list. This is MY 2011. It may not bear complete resemblance to the actual 2011. [...]
Many moons ago, I wrote a blog called “From Behind the Light.” It was mostly personal stories. Some comics. This is one of the better entries, rewritten for your enjoyment. There will be no science in this story. If you are a scientist, go back to your beaker and your ‘facts’ and your proofs. There [...]
Ho Ho Ho! I hope everyone is having a good Christmas and Holidays so far this year. The deadline has now past and next week we’ll be celebration XMas together with four guest strips from some of the biggest SuperFans out there. That’s right, FOUR updates next week! Here’s how it will shake out: MONDAY, [...]
A couple nights ago my wife and I went on a double date with some friends to see Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol at the local IMAX. The movie was stunning, fun and a successful transition for Brad Bird from animation to live action. He really knows how to build an action set piece that [...]
Many moons ago, I wrote a blog called “From Behind the Light.” It was mostly personal stories. Some comics. This is one of the better entries, rewritten for your enjoyment. You can read Part One of “The Asthma Killer” right here. When Paco Jose was a small boy, all of the members his family were [...]
Many moons ago, I wrote a blog called “From Behind the Light.” It was mostly personal stories. Some comics. This is one of the better entries, rewritten for your enjoyment. You can read Part One of “The Asthma Killer” here. You can read Part Two of “The Asthma Killer” here. It was decided that we [...]
Many moons ago, I wrote a blog called “From Behind the Light.” It was mostly personal stories. Some comics. This is one of the better entries, rewritten for your enjoyment. You can read Part One of “The Asthma Killer” here. You can read Part Two of “The Asthma Killer” here. You can read Part Three [...]
